Apple Valley district investigating claim of student punishment for not donating to school

Thursday

Jan 26, 2017 at 5:09 PMJan 26, 2017 at 5:09 PM

Charity Lindsey Staff Writer @DP_Charity

APPLE VALLEY — Apple Valley Unified School District responded Thursday to a post circulating on social media about a student allegedly being disciplined for not donating snacks to Phoenix Academy.

The post from a parent claims that their child was forced to write, “I will be more responsible for donating to my school,” 50 times during his usual 30-minute recess break.

After a letter asking for snack donations for the school’s movie night was sent home, the parent said they didn’t have money to purchase snacks until Thursday, and that the punishment “for something he has no control of” was unfair.

AVUSD issued a statement in response, clarifying that the district “cannot require donations from any party in return for services.”

The snack donations were requested so that they could be sold during the movie night to raise money for field trips. AVUSD said that while district schools often run fundraisers to offset the costs of field trips, “students cannot be denied access to such an opportunity based on their ability to participate.”

“AVUSD is committed to providing a safe and caring learning environment for all of our students and will continue to investigate the incident and take action as appropriate,” the statement reads.

Whether the discipline occured as claimed remains under investigation by the school and district, AVUSD spokeswoman Kristin Hernandez said.

“It did catch the attention of administration and they want to make sure that it is made right,” Hernandez said. “If it did happen, it’s something that needs to be corrected. For now, it’s being investigated.”

Charity Lindsey may be contacted at clindsey@vvdailypress.com or 760-951-6245. Follow her on twitter @DP_Charity.